Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

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Of Mice and Men byJohn Steinbeck
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Background on Steinbeck

• Born in Salinas, California in 1902
• Most of his famous books were written
• in the 1930s and 1940s
• took place during that same time period (Great
  Depression Era)
• Set in California

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Background on Steinbeck, Cont.

• His books deal with the
• lives and problems of working people
• His characters are usually
• immigrants from Mexico or other parts of the U.S.
  looking for a better life in California

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Steinbeck Timeline

• 1902 Born Feb. 27th in family home
• 1919 Graduated from Salinas High School
• 1919-1925 Attended Stanford University
• 1925 Went to NYC, working odd jobs, including
  manual labor for construction of Madison Square
  Garden. Could not find publisher
• 1926 Returned to California

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Steinbeck Timeline Cont.

• 1929 Cup of Gold became first published novel
• 1930 Married Carol Henning
• 1934 Mother died in the Salinas home
• 1935 Father died
• 1936 Of Mice and Men, set around Soledad, was
  produced as a novel and then a play

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Steinbeck Timeline Cont.

• 1938 The Grapes of Wrath- Inspired nationwide
  attention on the living conditions and
  exploitation of farm workers during the Great
  Depression
• 1940 Film version of The Grapes of Wrath
• 1940 Received the Pulitzer Prize for the novel
  Grapes of Wrath
• 1942 Divorced his wife

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Steinbeck continued

• 1943 Married Gwyndolyn Conger- a war
  correspondent in Europe for the Herald Tribune of
  NY during WWII
• 1948 Divorced wife again
• 1949 Met Elaine Scott
• 1950 Married Elaine Scott
• 1952 East of Eden, his major work about the
  history of Salinas Valley published

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Steinbeck Continued

• 1960 Traveled through America with his poodle to
  write Travels with Charley. Took his last view
  of the Salinas Valley from Fremont Peak.
• 1962 Accepts the Nobel Prize in Stockholm.
• 1968 Died December 20th in New York
• 1969 March 4th , his ashes were buried in the
  Garden of Memories Cemetery in Salinas

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Setting of OMAM

• Farmland of Salinas Valley
• Steinbecks father owned land in the area and
  Steinbeck worked as a farm hand
• The ranch in the story
• Near Soledad, south-east of Salinas on Salinas
  River
• The town Weed is nearby

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Migrant Farm Workers

• When OMAM was published, almost half Americas
  grain was harvested by huge combine harvesters
• George and Lennie (main characters of OMAM) are
  some of the last migrant farm workers
• Migrant workers earned 2.50 or 3.00 a day, plus
  food and very basic accommodation

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1930s

• Unemployment in United States very bad
• New Deal
• Agencies sent farm workers to where they were
  needed
• George and Lennie got their work cards from
  Murray and Readys, one of these agencies

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THE AMERICAN DREAM

• Immigrants dreamed of a better life in America
• Wanted to escape persecution or poverty
• For many the dream became a nightmare
• Slavery, American civil war, slums, corruption
• As a whole the dream ended with the Wall Street
  crash of 1929

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The Dream, not a Dream Anymore

• With the crash of Wall Street came the Great
  Depression
• The dream only survived for individuals who made
  their way west to California
• The growing popularity of cinema was the last
  American dream for many, Curleys wife was one
  Coulda been in the movies, had nice clothes.

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Why Of Mice and Men?

• Title comes from a poem by Scottish poet Robert
  Burns, To A Mouse
• The best laid schemes o mice and men
• Gang aft agley (often go wrong)
• And leave us nought but grief and pain
• For promised joy!